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EAST MARLBOROUGH When Fred Stauffer was an environmental teacher at Unionville High School back in the 1990s, he came up with an original idea to give his students an assignment to write a letter to themselves, and predict what their future would be like.

That future, 24 years later, is here.

Last month, Stauffer, with the help of Megan Plunkett-Cromer, delivered letters from students in Stauffer’s 1993 and 1994 classes. Stauffer didn’t read them all, but some of the ones he did read were doom and gloom, others eerily prophetic.

“Some of the stories were interesting,” Stauffer said. “They were supposed to be kids writing letters to themselves. Some were doomsdayers, others were pretty positive. It was a lot of fun.”

who turned 40 in April and was a student in Stauffer’s class, was surprised when Stauffer showed up at her house unannounced. Stauffer found her home when he went to her parents’ house first, and they directed him to her house right down the street.

“He gave my letter to me,” she said. “I wrote about wanting four kids, about wanting a teaching job, and other family and personal things. It was cool.”

Plunkett-Cromer has four children now, and had taught in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District before retiring to take care of her children, but she remains a PTO president.

Stauffer then asked Plunkett-Cromer to help deliver the more than 70 letters, because it had become hard to track down students who no longer lived with their parents.

Dan Fogel said he doesn’t remember writing his letter in Stauffer’s environmental science class in 1994, but he was glad to see his letter when it got delivered.

“I said world hunger will be a worse problem and more people will be cold and sick and endangered species will be an issue, and there will be disease and war,” Fogel said. “But I also said I will be married with children and have a decent living and a nice job. That part came true.”

Stauffer said he remembers reading a letter from one female student who said she wanted to be an elementary school teacher in Unionville, wanted three children and wanted to name them Mark, Heather and John. She had four children, and never used the names she predicted, but ended up becoming a teacher at Chadds-Ford Elementary School.

Stuaffer said he quit the experiment after two years when he realized he could have a problem delivering so many letters years later. He said he enjoys retirement.

“One of the most rewarding things I have seen in retirement is to see (past students) doing great things with their lives, and what they have achieved,” Stauffer said. “Teachers influence lives.”

DELTA COUNTY, MI – An abused shelter dog is hailed as a hero for finding a naked 3-year-old girl, who was curled up and shivering in a ditch near the dog’s new home, the shelter said.

An owner of the dog found the girl, wrapped her in a sweatshirt and rushed her to his home to warm up.

“Thanks to Peanut, a little girl’s life was saved today,” a woman wrote to Delta Animal Shelter, which shared the story on its Facebook page.

The girl was rescued around 11:15 a.m. Friday, March 17, near Rapid River in the Upper Peninsula’s Delta County.

The woman, who wasn’t identified, said that her dog “started going crazy at our house. She was running up and down the stairs, barking and yelping.”

The dog then went into the garage, where the woman’s husband was working on a project. The dog alerted him that it wanted to go outside. The husband had heard the dog running around but couldn’t figure out why.

Young, naked girl found lying in ditch in Upper Peninsula

“He let her outside and she went barreling into the field behind our house at full speed,” she wrote.

“My husband followed her and to his surprise, he found a naked, shivering, 3 year old girl curled up in a ball barely alive.”

She said he covered her with his sweatshirt and brought her inside. He called 911.

“The little girl was barely hanging on for her life. By the time the ambulance and police arrived, the little girl could only say one thing – ‘doggie,'” she wrote.

She said that the dog has been a blessing to her family.

“As you know, her background was so heartbreaking and we are so happy that we were able to take her into our home and give her the love and the family she deserves,” the woman said.

The dog still has a sense of its past life, though.

Once named Petunia, the dog was brought to the shelter last April with two broken legs, broken ribs and a stomach full of carpet.

The former owner was recently convicted of animal abuse, the shelter said.

“Petunia has a great new home with a wonderful family….and this formerly abused dog has now Saved the life of a little girl,” the shelter wrote.

The shelter was not releasing the name of the new owner, a worker said.

Meanwhile, Delta County sheriff’s deputies, who found the girl’s parents after going door-to-door, described the home as “unsafe and unsanitary.”

Police contact Child Protective Services workers who took custody of the girl and another young girl in the home.

Police said the temperature was around freezing at the time the girl was found.
Police have referred reports to prosecutors.